Buried under advice: how to actually start a podcast
Back in March I had a call with a marketer who’d wanted to start a podcast for a couple of years. She’d had the idea for about one. She had a second baby, eight months old, and was about to leave a full-time job to go back to freelancing. She’d done the research. She’d asked […]
The weekly trap: why a successful podcast was burning out its host
In May I had a call with someone who’d been making a podcast for just over a year. He had nearly 40 episodes and around 7,000 downloads. The median podcast gets about 30 downloads an episode. His were getting 100 to 150, with a long tail of people going back to older ones. By most […]
Jannine Barron Is Building a More Living Kind of Business
Jannine Barron doesn’t talk about business in the way most people do. Her work didn’t begin with a gap in the market or a five-year plan. It emerged slowly, through listening, paying attention, and allowing space for what wanted to take shape. After selling several businesses and stepping away from constant doing, people began to […]
How Helen Stuart Is Redefining Access To Safe, Fair And Ethical Therapy
Now You’re Talking, led by Managing Director Helen Stuart, is the trading arm of the charity Talk Listen Change. The platform connects people and businesses with verified, ethical therapists while funding free counselling through its parent charity. Balancing accessibility with safety, it pays therapists fairly and puts care before scale. By blending business with social impact, Now You’re Talking is building a sustainable model for mental health support that uplifts clients, practitioners, and communities alike.
How Danielle Heward Founded Optimo To Support Businesses That Put People And Planet First
Optimo, founded by Danielle Heward, supports purpose-driven organisations with streamlined operations that amplify impact. From solo consultancy to certified B Corp, Optimo balances growth with wellbeing. Using a people-processes-technology-information framework, they deliver practical change while staying values-led. Their ripple effects strengthen ethical agencies, communities, and sustainable businesses, proving impact multiplies through better operations.
How Harry Waters is helping young people find their voice in the climate crisis
Harry Waters didn’t set out to start a business. He set out to change the conversation on climate change and to include the most important people, who are often so easily forgotten – Children..
Through Renewable English, he’s helping students connect language and climate action in ways that feel empowering, not overwhelming. It’s about more than teaching; it’s about listening, relating, and reminding young people they already have something important to say.
James Gill is building the future of eco-friendly email
In a world where digital feels weightless, EcoSend is quietly asking what our clicks are costing the planet. Born on the hottest day in London, it began with a question: what’s the carbon footprint of an email? For James Gill and his team, that curiosity became a calling. Now, EcoSend helps ethical businesses communicate with integrity – powered by renewables, transparent about emissions, and aligned with values that matter. It’s not about growing faster. It’s about growing better. With every email sent, EcoSend invites a shift: from extractive to intentional, from business-as-usual to business that regenerates. One message at a time.
How Helen and Chris turned a personal promise into a movement for biodiversity and belonging
When Helen and Chris Neave first stepped onto a tired Yorkshire field, they didn’t see what was there, they saw what could be. With no master plan, just love for the land and a will to restore, they began. That act of care sparked something bigger. Today, Make it Wild is a growing network of rewilding sites, inviting people and businesses to support nature in deeply personal ways. It’s not just restoration – it’s reconnection. “It’s not our aim to support nature,” Helen says. “It’s our purpose.” What began with trees now echoes as a movement. Quiet. Committed. Alive.
Emma is building a business where creativity heals and waste finds new worth
In a quiet corner of Cheshire, Emma Semper Hopkins is stitching together a different kind of growth – one rooted in care, craft, and circularity. From her upcycled studio in an old Methodist chapel, she teaches upholstery with heart. What began as a home renovation skill has become a purpose-led business, helping people reconnect with creativity, confidence, and calm. Through hands-on workshops, Emma invites others to slow down, make with meaning, and resist throwaway culture. “If we can create with purpose, we can live with intention,” she says. Her work is proof that real beauty grows slowly, and often, in the most unexpected places.
How Harrison Ward turned cooking outdoors into a movement for mental health
“This wasn’t meant to be a business. It started as survival.”
Harrison Ward didn’t set out to build a brand. He set out to rebuild himself. From alcoholism and poor mental health to cooking on mountaintops as @fellfoodie, his journey is one of quiet resilience, radical honesty, and choosing purpose over profit.
In our latest Good Growth Guide story, Harrison shares how sharing his truth became a lifeline, both for him, and for others.
